AtWork! Is A Non-Profit Business With The Same Issues As Any Other Business
Excerpt from an interview with Chris Brandt, AtWork! CEO, on NW Focus. Click here to see the entire interview.
I like to think we are a very caring organization because we care about the people we serve and care about the movement. But we’re also a very efficient and effective operating corporation. Like any medium sized business we have all the same kind of issues that any business does. Even though we’re a non-profit we have to make money. We have to invest in infrastructure and technology, in trucks for our landscaping business and innovations in Customized Employment. We have to attract, train and retain really professional staff.
We’re a lot more like a for profit business than we are different. Lots of people think that because we’re a non-profit that we don’t need to have the same type of business practices. But we do and we operate with a high level of accountability and integrity. We are audited all the time and we pass our audits with flying colors. We’re a going concern that wants to get even bigger. Our next strategic direction is to take this Customized Employment practice that we’ve fine tuned over the last three years and expand our services. We want to double in size over the next three years. That’s our new strategic direction that will be finalized by our Board in September.
Currently we serve people all over King County, even though we’re based on the Eastside. We serve people with disabilities in Bothell, Woodinville, Renton, Kent and downtown Seattle as well as the Eastside. We’re considering geographic expansion beyond King County but even just in King County there are 4,500 people that are signed up for Division of Developmental Disabilities services, that want employment who are not being served and there’s probably an equal number that we don’t even know about. So the market for our services for people with disabilities who need us is huge without going outside our current graphic area. And the needs of businesses and the business opportunities within our geographic area, businesses who can benefit from employing people with disabilities, or the markets for working with our landscaping, packaging and assembly or document management services, are huge markets in our geographic area as well.
This is truly a life changing organization.
I like to think we are a very caring organization because we care about the people we serve and care about the movement. But we’re also a very efficient and effective operating corporation. Like any medium sized business we have all the same kind of issues that any business does. Even though we’re a non-profit we have to make money. We have to invest in infrastructure and technology, in trucks for our landscaping business and innovations in Customized Employment. We have to attract, train and retain really professional staff.
We’re a lot more like a for profit business than we are different. Lots of people think that because we’re a non-profit that we don’t need to have the same type of business practices. But we do and we operate with a high level of accountability and integrity. We are audited all the time and we pass our audits with flying colors. We’re a going concern that wants to get even bigger. Our next strategic direction is to take this Customized Employment practice that we’ve fine tuned over the last three years and expand our services. We want to double in size over the next three years. That’s our new strategic direction that will be finalized by our Board in September.
Currently we serve people all over King County, even though we’re based on the Eastside. We serve people with disabilities in Bothell, Woodinville, Renton, Kent and downtown Seattle as well as the Eastside. We’re considering geographic expansion beyond King County but even just in King County there are 4,500 people that are signed up for Division of Developmental Disabilities services, that want employment who are not being served and there’s probably an equal number that we don’t even know about. So the market for our services for people with disabilities who need us is huge without going outside our current graphic area. And the needs of businesses and the business opportunities within our geographic area, businesses who can benefit from employing people with disabilities, or the markets for working with our landscaping, packaging and assembly or document management services, are huge markets in our geographic area as well.
This is truly a life changing organization.
posted by AtWork! at 10:35 AM
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